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Losos
Fondly Remembered
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West Suffolk
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13-10-2018, 08:52 PM
11

Re: Cashback sites.

Originally Posted by Right Now ->
I'm in the states, and have been using Ebate Cash back for several years now.
It offers cash back of 2, 5 10 or even 12 percent, when online shopping with various stores like amazon, LLBean, Lord and Taylor, Macys, flower shops, shoe stores, etc.
Even 12% is a rubbish rate when you consider that Amazon, LLBean, Lord & Taylor, Macys etc probably pay 25% or even more to Ebate Cash Back

The Gross Margin on all those suppliers would sometimes be 100% or more so they give Ebate Cash Back 25% with no worries. Passing half of that on to the mug punter is normal.
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DWebb
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13-10-2018, 11:19 PM
12

Re: Cashback sites.

Originally Posted by Losos ->
Even 12% is a rubbish rate when you consider that Amazon, LLBean, Lord & Taylor, Macys etc probably pay 25% or even more to Ebate Cash Back

The Gross Margin on all those suppliers would sometimes be 100% or more so they give Ebate Cash Back 25% with no worries. Passing half of that on to the mug punter is normal.
It is surely better for this mug punter to get back 10% to 12% on hotel bookings off Expedia no matter how much Quidco get back....it’s better than what I get not going through Quidco and doing it direct with Expedia....
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Right Now
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14-10-2018, 02:51 PM
13

Re: Cashback sites.

Originally Posted by Losos ->
Even 12% is a rubbish rate when you consider that Amazon, LLBean, Lord & Taylor, Macys etc probably pay 25% or even more to Ebate Cash Back

The Gross Margin on all those suppliers would sometimes be 100% or more so they give Ebate Cash Back 25% with no worries. Passing half of that on to the mug punter is normal.
Until the wealthy owners of corporations change their rules and share with us mere peons their quarterly returns, I'll gladly take my own 12% and not grumble.
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DWebb
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14-10-2018, 07:21 PM
14

Re: Cashback sites.

Originally Posted by Right Now ->
Until the wealthy owners of corporations change their rules and share with us mere peons their quarterly returns, I'll gladly take my own 12% and not grumble.
I totally agree with you, I have saved a fortune on holiday bookings with them as it all adds up, I would rather have the 12% than nothing, it seems to be a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face not to use them
Realist
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15-10-2018, 06:29 PM
15

Re: Cashback sites.

Another sceptic here who does not use such site. As Losos rightly states, the money has to come from somewhere. The reality is that the money comes from the companies selling the actual products, i.e. the affiliates of the cashback companies.

So by helping generate lots of sales for company X, sites like TopCashBack get bonuses paid to them by Company X and they hand a small portion of that bonus over to their customers.

You'd have to be pretty much a loon or uncaring shopper to not realise that nothing is free. If Company X is going to pay other companies bonuses for generating sales then those bonuses are CLEARLY going tobe factired into the business model of Company X which means the prices of their products will be adjusted accordingly.

Thus partakers of cashback sites are exercising kidology.

How exactly are you saving anything if your £10 cash back received by buying a THING is actually embedded in the sale price of that THING? Only one person is getting fooled and is out of pocket here and it sure ain't the manufacturer or the cashback sites !!!

There are also some clear dangers associated with cashback sites. Many have gone bust so it's importnat to never leave any cashback money in the cashback site's account. ALWAYS withdraw the money as soon as you can.

Also, there's a temptation to buy things through the cashback sites instead of doing the normal amount of buying research.

As always with anything relating to finances and money matters it is worth going to MoneySavingExpert.com which has tons of advice and customer testimonies in their forum.

Here is their article on cash back sites:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sh...back-websites/

They site these 2 examples of things to beware of:

Example 1: You want a new telly. A cashback site brings up Korma Electricals, offering 5% cashback, which means a £20 discount on a £399 TV. Yet two minutes using a shopbot would've found you the same TV on sale at £299.

Example 2: Your car insurance is up for renewal. You spot the Commander Insurance £100 cashback offer on a cashback website, so grab its £540 policy via the site. Yet if you'd used a car insurance comparison website, you'd have found an equivalent policy from Chamberlain Insurance for £370. As Chamberlain is also on a cashback site, you could've got a further £25 off, saving £95 in total.


In the end there are no free dinners, only a total fool would believe otherwise.

You may perceive that you are getting product X cheaper because of the cash back, but unfortunately product X has already been marked up to take account of the cash back bonuses the company give to cashback sites. As I said, kidology.

In the end, all you are really doing is wilfully allowing other companies to track all of your purchasing habits and record all of your data for pretty much nothing. If a man came up to you in the street and asked if they could have all your details and make a list of all your buying habits and asked for your permission to pass that data to lots of other companies . . . . would you do it?!

No I doubt it.

But wrap it all up as a "cash back" exercise where it APPEARS that you are saving money, and people seem to fall for it. Not for me.
Realist
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15-10-2018, 06:55 PM
16

Re: Cashback sites.

Here's a snippet from the Topcashback.com Privacy terms regarding targetted marketing/advertising:


"we find ways of ensuring any marketing promotions are targeted at the right people. In order to do this, we may share your data with large social media pages to ensure our marketing reaches the target audience."

also this:

"We will never sell your personal data to any company outside the Top Online Partners Group Limited group of companies for marketing purposes. As referred to above, we may share your Contact or Identity Data with certain third parties e.g. sub-processors to facilitate the delivery of marketing emails to you and social media publishers, in order to ensure our marketing is targeted at and relevant to Topcashback members."

The Top Online Partners Group is an international group which includes the UK and USA. It is interesting (to me) that the statement above says specifically they won't sell your personal data FOR MARKETING PURPOSES. Why would they need to make that specific caveat? It surely implies that they WILL sell your personal data for some other purpose(s).
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DWebb
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15-10-2018, 11:03 PM
17

Re: Cashback sites.

Originally Posted by Realist ->
Another sceptic here who does not use such site. As Losos rightly states, the money has to come from somewhere. The reality is that the money comes from the companies selling the actual products, i.e. the affiliates of the cashback companies.

So by helping generate lots of sales for company X, sites like TopCashBack get bonuses paid to them by Company X and they hand a small portion of that bonus over to their customers.

You'd have to be pretty much a loon or uncaring shopper to not realise that nothing is free. If Company X is going to pay other companies bonuses for generating sales then those bonuses are CLEARLY going tobe factired into the business model of Company X which means the prices of their products will be adjusted accordingly.

Thus partakers of cashback sites are exercising kidology.

How exactly are you saving anything if your £10 cash back received by buying a THING is actually embedded in the sale price of that THING? Only one person is getting fooled and is out of pocket here and it sure ain't the manufacturer or the cashback sites !!!

There are also some clear dangers associated with cashback sites. Many have gone bust so it's importnat to never leave any cashback money in the cashback site's account. ALWAYS withdraw the money as soon as you can.

Also, there's a temptation to buy things through the cashback sites instead of doing the normal amount of buying research.

As always with anything relating to finances and money matters it is worth going to MoneySavingExpert.com which has tons of advice and customer testimonies in their forum.

Here is their article on cash back sites:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sh...back-websites/

They site these 2 examples of things to beware of:

Example 1: You want a new telly. A cashback site brings up Korma Electricals, offering 5% cashback, which means a £20 discount on a £399 TV. Yet two minutes using a shopbot would've found you the same TV on sale at £299.

Example 2: Your car insurance is up for renewal. You spot the Commander Insurance £100 cashback offer on a cashback website, so grab its £540 policy via the site. Yet if you'd used a car insurance comparison website, you'd have found an equivalent policy from Chamberlain Insurance for £370. As Chamberlain is also on a cashback site, you could've got a further £25 off, saving £95 in total.


In the end there are no free dinners, only a total fool would believe otherwise.

You may perceive that you are getting product X cheaper because of the cash back, but unfortunately product X has already been marked up to take account of the cash back bonuses the company give to cashback sites. As I said, kidology.

In the end, all you are really doing is wilfully allowing other companies to track all of your purchasing habits and record all of your data for pretty much nothing. If a man came up to you in the street and asked if they could have all your details and make a list of all your buying habits and asked for your permission to pass that data to lots of other companies . . . . would you do it?!

No I doubt it.

But wrap it all up as a "cash back" exercise where it APPEARS that you are saving money, and people seem to fall for it. Not for me.
I can only speak for Quidco in relation to Expedia, I did a test of looking directly on the Expedia site on one machine to see what the prices were for a few hotels, as against the price on another machine linking to the Expedia site through the Quidco site, the prices was identical, except for the fact I get 10% to 15% back through Quidco, as I book a considerable number of hotels this has saved me a fair amount of money over the years, I am not really to bothered how much Quidco are getting out of the deal, I am happy with the 12%. I also get money back on car hire and flights, again I have done the comparisons and I get the same deal linked through Quidco and going direct to the car hire company.
I have had about £5K back through Quidco and they have paid on every transaction, never missed one, of course all of that is not total profit as I have gone for dearer insurance products which are made cheapest due to the cash back.
I have still made a fair amount of money off them which I would not have got going direct, to be honest if they do use my details for marketing purposes I am not sure I am to bothered.
Realist
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16-10-2018, 02:15 PM
18

Re: Cashback sites.

Originally Posted by DWebb ->
I did a test of looking directly on the Expedia site on one machine to see what the prices were for a few hotels, as against the price on another machine linking to the Expedia site through the Quidco site, the prices was identical, except for the fact I get 10% to 15% back through Quidco, as I book a considerable number of hotels this has saved me a fair amount of money over the years
I'm sensing you haven't quite understood this whole set up TBH.

You're NOT saving 10% to 15%.

What you are doing is paying an inflated price for the hotel, a price that already has that 10% to 15% discount (or more) factored in. It's simply being presented to you as cashback.

I'll try and make it simple.

I'm a manufacturer of product X which I normally sell for £60.

However I want to hook up with QuidCash because I believe they will generate lots of sales for my Product X but if I do that I know that I will have to pay them bonuses (aka commission) for generating those sales. The commission I will have to pay to QuidCash is say approx 20%.

So, before I do anything else, I will first hike up the price of Product X to £75. Now after I take off a 20% discount for QuidCash (£15) I am still getting to the original £60 for my product. Lovely Jubbly !

The mug punter customers of QuidCash out there surf the internet and see that Product X costs £75 everywhere but they know if they buy it through QuidCash they will get say a 5% saving (remember QuidCash will keep most of the commission for themselves and only pass a bit onto their customers).

So the hapless mug punter looks on the internet and sees that Product X is £75 but with 5% off via QuidCash it is only £71.25. Not a great saving but it all adds up in their mind. Every little helps.

So the hapless mugpunter pays £71.25 and FALSELY BELIEVES that they just made a 5% saving on Product X.

What they actually have is Product X which is worth £60 and they've paid £71.25 for it.

And for the privilege of paying an inflated price for the product the hapless mug punter has also given permission for all their buying transaction data and personal details to be collated and used for various purposes including targeted advertising.

THIS ENTIRE NONSENSE SITUATION EXISTS SOLELY BECAUSE OF THE EXISTENCE OF CASH BACK SITES AND THE EXISTENCE OF GULLIBLE NAIVE SHOPPERS WHO REALLY DO BELIEVE THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A FREE LUNCH !

It should be noted that in order to serve this stupid "Cash Back" industry the prices of all products have to be hiked up. That means EVERYONE ELSE SUFFERS because of the gullible few who think they are getting a bargain.

The Product should be just £60 but because of cash back sites it is now £75. The fact that the naive mug punter pays £71.25 and others pay £75 is neither here nor there. What has happened is EVERYONE has been ripped off and that happens purely because fools use cash back sites.

Wake up and smell the coffee imo!
 
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